time for a new phone

I had struggled with settling for the right phone this time round, and was very inclined to go for a cashback deal with an independent retailer I have never before used. However what kept me up at night in front of the laptop was the question of which phone to pick - I had whittled them down to a shortlist of three (all with good deals) - LG Cookie, LG GT500 (exclusive to T-Mobile) and Samsung Tocco Lite. That was all that prevented me from making the booking online. I had even already requested and had received the PAC code from Vodafone (to allow number porting to a different network).

Vodafone called me today.
(Well they had tried to ring me about 4 times but each time I picked up there was no one on the line. I've read this online before - it's maybe an automated calling system which dials and allows agents to then connect, but maybe all were not free to pick up the call when it actually is connected. But anyway the agent asked me if I had received the PAC code and I said "yes, I got the text". I also told her I had been called a few times with no one answering. She was quite straightforward after the opening exchanges, asking "what can we do to keep you on Vodafone?" I said, "well, offer me a good deal". She asked what phone I wanted, I went "something with a touchscreen".
"How much would you want to pay?"
"About fifteen a month. Are there any phones on 12 month contracts?"
She also asked about minutes, which I mentioned I would be happy to go for anything with "300 or 400" minutes.
She then suggested the Nokia 5800, which is a decent phone (and being Nokia, has a certain prestige associated with it), but which I actually feel is a bit too blocky/rectangular. I wanted smoother curves. She said the plan would have to be 18 months (I went, "that would be my maximum"), and for only £14.83 a month I would get 600 mins + ultd texts.

This is, in reality, a very good offer on a fairly new touchscreen phone.

It was then that I mentioned to her I didn't quite like the Nokia and queried if she had other phones on offer. She asked what I might be interested in. I was frank; I told her I had looked at another phone, "not available on Voda", the LG GT500. It even had GPS functionality, I told her. She mentioned that Voda does not stock LG phones as they have had many customer issues - not sure if true or not - but anyway then goes on to offer the Samsung Jet or Samsung Blade. I quickly check gsmarena for them but she was right in telling me the Jet is better, and it "has GPS too". Bingo!

I say, "Well the T-Mobile contract is coming out at about less than 11pounds a month. Would you be able to reduce the tariff on this?", fully expecting her not to be able to go any lower. However she surprised me with a slightly different take on the discounting, saying, "what if I offered it to you on a 12-month contract instead? If you would be able to make a decision today I can try and ask my manager if he can authorise this". I was pleasantly taken aback. So I confirmed the terms - new phone, 600 mins + ultd txts, 12 mth contract on 14.83 a month. Whipping out my calculator I confirm it is less than 180 pounds, which was about the price I would expect to pay for a 12-mth contract (but with less minutes, on the cashback deal with LG Cookie - the GT500 would be on 18 mths).

"Yes, if he can authorise this I will go ahead with the upgrade today".

Bearing in mind that my mobile reception at work is not good I took pains to keep the same posture and phone position to ensure the call wouldn't be cut off! I held for a while, and she was happy to confirm that she could offer me that deal! Chuffed to bits now.... 180 pounds for the Samsung Jet is a very good deal. It is a similar-spec'd phone to the LG GT500 - 3G connectivity, GPS (but needs internet), even better touchscreen and colour resolution (16M, AMOLED screen, 3.1 inch!), and same 5MP camera with flash. As she was giving me her details for confirmation etc the call got disconnected - but she left a voicemail with the details so I was able to get the info. Also comes thrown in with one month's free GPS access!

Phone will be delivered Thursday to my workplace. Actual line rental would be 30 pounds but they are putting a discount on the line rental. Contract expected to be upgraded on 1st Oct.

Hehhehehhehh.... can't wait to see the new phone! No troublesome cashback claims somemore!
In fact this is the first time I have had a satisfactory offer direct from a mobile network, in all my years of switching phones (and networks). The last time I had a decent offer was carphonewarehouse but that was a SIM-only 200 minutes deal. Which doesn't come close to this!

Symbol of Irrelevance: Vellu should take his bow

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/9/24/focus/4764007&sec=focus

I quote excerpts from a commentary in The Star by Assoc Editor M. Veera Pandiyan. Vellu has always been known to be a bit of a tiger - but even I was shocked when he lost his long-held seat in the last elections.

Leave with dignity, not in shame

***

Those who know Samy Vellu well would agree that he can be charming and extremely generous to his friends but nasty and ruthless in anger, especially when dealing with political enemies.

And during his 30-year-long tenure – from 1979 to 1981 as acting president, and since then as president – many of his friends have turned into enemies and vice versa. A few have gone around several times in the continuing drama.

But today, his biggest worry must surely be his frenemies – those who seem to be friends but are actually enemies.

They had been too scared to invoke his wrath or to mount a challenge, even after the party’s worst loss in the March 2008 election that saw him being booted from his Sungei Siput parliamentary seat and forced out of his long-held Cabinet portfolio.

Yet he has doggedly refused to loosen his grip on the party. But for how long?

***

As for Samy Vellu, members would rather see him go with some semblance of dignity rather than be shoved out in shame.

I might be inviting a garland of slippers for this, but there is a danger of the MIC ending up as an abbreviation for Megalomaniac In Command if he chooses to stay on to the end of his 11th term.

Man Utd keeps pace with Chelsea...

Just checked the result. Man Utd 4-3 Man City. Probably worked in our favour that Emmanuel Adebayor was not playing although the match analysis stated that it would have been harsh on Man Utd if they didn't win. Will catch the highlights tonight.

Some Quotes of the Week (off the BBC Sport site) for you..

"Phil, if the whole of Abu Dhabi is playing for Arsenal, are you telling me there's a gulf between the two sides?"
Jeff Stelling on Soccer Saturday, after Phil Thompson mispronounces Abou Diaby's name.

"Not yet."
Adrian Sutil when asked if he knew who the gorgeous young woman standing next to him was while being interviewed after the Monza GP.

"There are some places in Brazil where the boys do not have the same conditions or treatment we have here. It is less-well medically, psychologically and footballistically."
Arsene Wenger invents yet another new word, when describing how much better it is for youngsters to train at Arsenal than it is in Brazil.

Kayaking saturday

So last saturday 4 of us went kayaking - my first time in the UK, also first time on a proper river. Alan and I went to Newport to meet Heng Wen and June and we drove to the canoe hire place at Monmouth. The borderlands. We were going to start the kayaking trip aat Symonds Yat West, passing through the picturesque Symonds Gorge area (river valley) and going along some Grade II rapids before landing on the long "straight" back to the hire centre downstream. This was a total of 7 miles.

As Alan and I had kayaking experience I had pre-booked a single kayak for each of us, with Heng Wen and June getting into the unsinkable (actually un-capsizeable) canadian canoe. We had spray decks for preventing water from entering our kayaks, especially when negotiating the rapids. I had never used one before but this was a fairly easy to use piece of apparatus. And quite useful too, although someone did point out to me that it could get really stuffy inside - not that I felt anything that way.

Everything was in place and we started paddling downstream at aobut 2.40pm, sometimes with one hand on a camera and stopping frequently to snap pictures in motion. We soon reached the pubs (where you can stop for a drink or two haha) and the gorge itself. I noticed that one can clamber up a column of rock perched high above, overlooking the huge meander of the river. Perhaps next time I will do that land-based activity instead. The rapids experience was really good. We had been warned about the currents but our kayaks were really stable and we were not in any real danger of capsizing (plus it's only Grade II). However we realised that we could stop at the bank and redo the rapids bit - by carrying the kayaks back upstream! On the spur of the moment we decided we'd do that, and ended up carrying the kayaks, which turned out to be rather heavy. We took the opportunity to have a snack as well, before we re-entered the water. For the second round I was well and truly prepared - mobile phone in hand (actually jacket) with secured by a zip-loc bag and slipping the entire set-up behind the zipper of the life jacket. It fit snugly in front of the foam. With the (video) cameras rolling we went straight for the gushing rapids.

What a revelation! I had moved the kayak a bit too much to the right and was a tad worried that I might get washed onto the man-made breakwaters at the edge of the water course, but because of the choppiness of the river flow I was never in much danger of getting stranded or even hitting the bank. I drifted (or rather, got washed) down pretty quickly onto the expanse of water ahead - its placidness contrasting quite jarringly with the turbulent flow I went through just seconds ago.

Thereafter was the long march back, probably a good 5 miles of canoeing in open river before arrived back at our destination. My arms were not as tired as I thought they would be (maybe I should have kayaked even faster) but they did get a good ol' tan. We were expected to complete the course in about 2.5 hours, and we took longer only because we stopped to take pictures and also wasted time when redoing the rapids. In fact, on the last stretch which had an estimated rowing time of 1 hour (according to the map), we only took about 40 minutes which I thought was a good result.

Now I just wonder how quickly I can actually row... hmmm... and this activity now leads on to a bigger goal later this year - whitewater rafting in winter! Hopefully I can get something going then - can't always get the right people interested.

Tee Keat's BN-style leadership consolidation begins to backfire...

Anyone following our dear country's multi-faceted political scene will at least be pleasantly surprised at the latest course of events. MCA President Ong Tee Keat has decided to allow without challenge or alteration an EGM by the supporters of Dr. Chua Soi Lek, including not adding to or negotiating their 5 proposed resolutions. These in effect call for the reinstatement of Chua as Deputy President after his incredible and somewhat arbitrary sacking a few weeks ago.

In events that unfolded not too long ago, Tee Keat tried a BN-style leadership consolidation with little regard to the intelligence of his audience. This might have worked in other parties like UMNO or MIC, but unlike those parties where internal opposition from delegates and members can often be abated and handled in many different ways, usually behind the scenes before anything serious is riled up in public, here in MCA some delegates actually had the clarity of mind and principled sense of justice to recognise that this action was grossly unfair and an unconstitutional character assassination. Of course in politics there is always more to it than meets the eye, e.g. some delegates might have some political mileage to gain by supporting this, but it all points to the fact that Chua is a very popular leader (as manifested by a few examples now, including his election as Deputy President after having resigned from all party posts).

It has also been helped that the leading figures in the call for his reinstatement are central committee members with a considerable clout in their own right, and for them to champion his cause shows his importance and relevance (or help towards their own cause) to the MCA internal political scene. Someone no less than a former national deputy minister, Datuk Seri Tan Chai Ho, campaigned for and sought to push this EGM through. Tee Keat, currently under extreme pressure following his move to cement his stranglehold on power, has decided to placate the requisionists by not interfering with the EGM at all, and this might turn out to be shrewd move. It might play a part in him securing the failure of the first resolution, which is a motion of no confidence in his leadership and effectively calls for a leadership contest.

I shall follow proceedings with a keen eye, since this appears to the last major political rift at the top of a BN party following MIC's huge Vellu lean last week.

Latest from me... politics aside!

Well, I've been busy for many weekends, going round doing lots of travelling and other fun stuff.
So far I have gone cherry/strawberry picking again, traversed the country to Leeds, Snowdonia (north Wales), returned to beautiful Tenby (west Wales), and gone back to Edinburgh where I completed some long-standing unfinished business (leaving one more major thing still to do in Edinburgh).

Most exciting must have been the Edinburgh festivals - I went chiefly for the International Festival and the Fringe Festival. I'd been plotting this for 3 years... also finished scaling Arthur's Seat - this one has been pending for 5 years! Edinburgh is such a charming and beautiful city, it always gives you this sense of disarmament, especially when up on the hills within Holyrood Park and with the wind embracing you from all sides. Edfringe was brilliant; the free comedies were mostly of a very high standard, and there was so much culture oozing out of the place I could have stayed there a week and still not got enough. Will have to go for another festival next time, and maybe even a music festival (like Glastonbury) would be a great experience!

Tried to arrange kayaking last weekend but didn't get the numbers, and river levels were too high for safe rental of boats. Maybe postpone to this weekend - I need to grab the guys again. Also was quite serious about going for the 10km charity run, but after Alan pulled out (could not reschedule prior appointment) I decided to become lazy instead. I could always run 10km on my own - it would have been great to take part in the charity run, but perhaps next time. But next time I will plan better and actually do it!

Badminton season is about to hot up - first matches I hear are a few weeks away. Need to step back into gear again very soon, with a stronger lineup this year as well. I hope we do justice to ourselves and achieve a creditable finish come May 2010!

Lost more respect for Badawi...

I lost a bit of respect for Tun Abdullah Badawi today. I thought he could rise above the lowly actions and words of his former government subordinates when commenting on the recent racial tensions in Malaysia.
However, he has failed to maintain his objectivity, especially given his religious background. He instead opted to echo the PM's stand, deftly using the selfish explanation when commenting on the cow head incident.

“Street demonstrations that insult the race or religion of another community will anger the affected party, thus complicating efforts to resolve it.

“The Quran clearly states that Islam prohibits its followers from insulting the religions of non-Muslims.

“This is because non-Muslims may react and start insulting Islam, which can lead to untoward incidents,” he said after presenting Yayasan Budi Penyayang Hari Raya aid and scholarships to 477 people at Pusat Budi Penyayang yesterday.

[Taken from The Star http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/9/7/nation/4666285&sec=nation]

You should not insult others because someone might (would) react if you slur them, insult you back and you might then get hurt in subsequent trouble. That is a very absurd kind of reasoning when trying to teach someone not to do something that is obviously wrong. I am frankly surprised to hear this from a former leader who still retains a clean image and some respect for being schooled in religious thought. I mean, when Najib used the same kind of stance in his recent call to Muslims to "be tolerant" to other races, I wasn't surprised at all because that was all the concession I expected him to offer - he obviously would (and did) play the race/religion "we are actually still correct in our thoughts " card... but for Badawi, he did not need to use that.

You should rise above that, and history will accord you a rightful place on the pedestal of integrity of Malaysian leaders. Which is showing signs of slippage....

As V. Shanmugan says (http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/9/8/focus/4667405&sec=focus) "we need to have racial acceptance, not tolerance". Continuing down this road is a recipe for disaster.

Misguided opinions, this time on caning

the recent caning issue for a malay/muslim model...
taken from The Star..

Dept cleared to cane part-time model Kartika

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/9/6/nation/4660845&sec=nation

I wonder why the caning "demonstration" did not involve them trying it on Hishamuddin to show him properly their abilities?!!

"Little force and not going to inflict pain", my foot! If it is not going to be painful at all, why impose it as a sentence? And why should it be a sentence in the first place at all when the Syariah laws are applied so arbitrarily?

It is sad that our politicians can't even talk logically....

-----

KUALA LUMPUR: Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein has “cleared” the Prisons Department to cane part-time model Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno.

He said department director-general Datuk Zulkifli Omar and a woman officer came to his office last week to conduct a caning demonstration for him.

“She tapped the back of a chair with the cane.

“There was little force involved and it was not going to inflict pain, not even like the caning carried out in schools in those days.

“I am now satisfied that the caning can be carried out by the department if the court decides to proceed and enforce the sentence,” he said in an interview.

Hishammuddin had recently said the ministry needed to study the proper procedures before caning the woman according to Syariah law, adding that he would not allow the department to execute the caning sentence if it did not have the knowledge and expertise to do it.

(truncated...)

The Myth Of A Moderate Malaysia

http://www.forbes.com/2009/08/30/malaysia-islam-religion-opinions-contributors-sadanand-dhume.html

thanks to Kirsty for the spot....

Taken directly from the article above...

The Myth Of A Moderate Malaysia

If you're looking for an image that captures the conflict between fervent Islam and basic human decency, look no further than the Malaysian city of Shah Alam, about 15 miles west of Kuala Lumpur.

On Friday, a group of about 50 men, agitated by plans to relocate a 150-year-old Hindu temple to their neighborhood, made their feelings clear by staging a protest march from a mosque to a government building. Amidst the usual cries of "Allahu Akbar" and "takbeer," the protesters deposited the freshly severed head of a cow--an animal sacred to Hindus--before the building's gate. The group's leaders made threatening speeches and, perhaps caught up in the spirit of the moment, hammed it up for the cameras, stepping and spitting on the cow's head. The police--who have been known to arrest people for such crimes as attending a candle light vigil or wearing black in support of the opposition--stood by and watched.

Ironically, those scanning the globe for a Muslim-majority country that inspires neither dread nor despair often alight upon Malaysia. Until a few years ago, the Southeast Asian nation boasted the world's tallest building, the iconic 88-story Petronas Towers. Powered by electronics, palm oil and petroleum, Malaysia is the world's 20th-largest exporter, ahead of Sweden, Australia and India. Per capita income, about $14,000 in purchasing parity terms, is about the same as in Argentina. Apart from the obvious prosperity of downtown Kuala Lumpur, the casual visitor notices the comforting trappings of a British colonial past--a parliament, a judiciary, a professional police force.

But most strikingly, Malaysia (along with next-door Indonesia) can claim something increasingly rare in the Muslim world: a large non-Muslim population. About four in 10 Malaysians are Buddhist, Christian, Hindu , Sikh or Confucian. (By contrast, Turkey, the poster-child for an Islam at peace with the 21st century, is 99.8% Muslim.) Recognizing the power of this statistic in our multicultural age, Tourism Malaysia promotes the country's allegedly harmonious blend of Malay, Chinese and Indian communities with an odd but nonetheless catchy slogan: Malaysia, Truly Asia.

The reality, of course, is a lot less sunny. Unlike neighboring Singapore, which shares the same colonial past and ethnic mix--albeit with a Chinese rather than a Malay majority--Malaysia has rejected secularism in favor of a kind of ethnoreligious apartheid that belongs more in a medieval kingdom than in a modern democratic republic.

In Malaysia, Islam is the state religion. Higher education, the bureaucracy and vast swathes of the economy are operated as a kind of spoils system almost exclusively for Malays, whom the state defines as Muslim. Race and religion determine everything from your odds of getting into medical school to the amount you're expected to put down for an apartment. The conversion laws, based on sharia, bring to mind the Eagles' classic "Hotel California": You can check in (to Islam) any time you like, but you can never leave.

Over the past 30 years, encouraged by the government and influenced by the Middle East, Malaysia's growing prosperity has gone hand-in-hand with a heightened piety. But instead of making the country more humane, this has had the opposite effect. Friday's protest was part of a larger pattern. A 32-year-old Malaysian Muslim model, Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, faces a sharia-prescribed caning, suspended at the moment on account of Ramadan, for the crime of drinking a beer. Muslims have been barred from a Black Eyed Peas concert next month sponsored by Guinness. Two years ago, a Muslim-born woman, Lina Joy, failed in her famous eight-year quest to convert to Christianity to marry the man that she loved. (Interfaith marriages are forbidden.) In another high-profile case, Revathi Masoosai, a practicing Hindu, was forcibly separated from her husband and infant daughter and sent to a religious re-education camp after it was discovered that technically she had been born a Muslim.

Taken together, these cases illustrate two issues--both central to the debate about Islam and modernity--that Malaysia is struggling to come to terms with. Can a Muslim majority live with a non-Muslim minority as equals, or must the former be explicitly dominant--in law as well as in day-to-day life? And can Muslims reconcile piety with a culture where the rights of the individual (say, to order a beer) are given precedence over communal beliefs?

To be sure, not all Malays, perhaps not even a majority of the sharia-minded, approve of the acts of boorishness committed in the name of their faith. Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has ordered police to take action against the Shah Alam protesters, and members of parliament have cut across racial and party lines to condemn the incident. The English-language Malaysian blogosphere is alight with outrage, much of it Muslim. Nor are questions about secularism and individual rights absent in non-Muslim societies. In recent years, thuggish Hindu groups have developed a penchant for roughing up women in bars and castigating young couples for the high crime of celebrating Valentine's Day. America has yet to come to terms with a woman's right to an abortion.

Nonetheless, only in Muslim-majority lands are religious bigots given such broad leeway by their secular co-religionists. An Indian feminist is apt to laugh in the face of a pious Hindu who tells her that gender relations need to be ordered by the ancient laws of Manu. In America, the so-called new atheists--most prominently Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins--don't need to think twice about ridiculing religious beliefs or savaging the most powerful priest or pastor. But in Malaysia, as elsewhere, secular liberals tend to tip-toe around Muslim religious sensibilities. They wield the word "un-Islamic" as an insult rather than as a compliment. Unless this changes, unless Malaysians can find a way to treat Islam like any other set of ideas, scenes like those in Shah Alam on Friday aren't about to disappear.

Sadanand Dhume is a Washington-based writer and the author ofMy Friend the Fanatic: Travels with a Radical Islamist (Skyhorse Publishing, 2009).